In the morning, we left Agrigento on our way to Selinunte. First we drove past the temples on the ridge, giving us a wonderful and unforgettable final view.
The national road we used was long and straight, in direct contrast to the narrow winding roads we have been using for the last few days. Our guide told us that, where possible, Italians prefer their roads to be level. So on this road there were a lot of tunnels and several viaducts. Two of the viaducts were almost two kilometres long.
First we drove close to the coast, through orange groves and fields of olives and vines. In this area, the properties are divided by fences of prickly pears, not by walls as we had noticed near Ragusa. We passed the town of Sciacca (pronounced shak-ah) which has spa baths because it is a thermal area, and has been used as a spa since earliest times. We had no time to stop for a visit though - and the town itself looked modern and quite unattractive.
Once past the town, we turned inland for a while and noticed that the countryside around us was just a patchwork of vineyards. Apparently they were producing grapes for wine, and there is a well known wine co-operative centred in the area to which many of the farmers belong.
We turned back towards the sea again, noticing the soil was now a quite bright red and the farms were largely growing olive trees. In contrast to the olive trees we are used to seeing in TV adverts, these ones are quite short - they are heavily pruned so the olives aren't too difficult to harvest.
Soon we could see what looked like a Greek temple on the skyline in front of us. As my photo from the other side is a far better one, I'm including that, rather than the view you see as you aporoach.
This was our first view of part of Selinunte, a town founded in the middle of the 7th century BC, perched on a plateau overlooking the sea. The site is split into two parts, with temples in each. It is claimed to be the biggest archeological site in Europe, and it was a very humid day, so some of us took advantage of the little electric buggies that ferry you around.
The eastern group of temples has the one that is most complete, since it was partly reconstructed in 1958. It is a gloriously impressive sight, with huge soaring columns standing out against the sky. The little guide we were given by the buggy driver says it was dedicated to Hera and dates to the first half of the 5th century BC. You are allowed to enter this partly reconstructed temple, going up the stairs and right through what would have been the pronaos, though you are prevented from going any further.
It is massive inside, you don't really realise the size of the columns until you are standing next to them. Because nothing of the roof remains, it provides a nesting place for the birds. It was originally decorated with panels called metopes, which are now in a museum in Palermo.
There has been very little attempt to reconstruct the other two temples on this part of the site, so the parts just lie scattered about. The one behind the Hera temple was apparently the oldest, dating to around 550 BC. The remaining one was newer and unfinished at the time the city was destroyed when it was attacked by the Carthaginians in 409 BC, but it would have been enormous - second only to the temple of Jove at Agrigento. You can tell it was unfinished because some of the columns were un-fluted - the fluting was usually done after they had been erected.
The little buggy then took us up to the site of the Acropolis, which was the site that was first occupied. From here there are wonderful views back across to the eastern temples, as well as views down to the sea.
There were five temples on the Acropolis, and there has been a partial reconstruction of one of them. It is the oldest in this area, dating to the 6th century BC; it stands on the highest point, looking out over the sea. It too had fine metopes now in the Palermo museum. There are 14 standing columns which were re-erected in the 1920s.
Immediately behind the temples were little shops. Our guide says the area had been taken over by the Carthaginians because of the north African style of building, with large stones holding together the walls of infilled stones.
There were also streets of houses - witness the bath tub! (I seem to be writing about bathrooms all too frequently)
You didn't expect to sit immersed in the wzter. You sat on the top shelf, and your feet went on the shelf below - all the broken bits in my photo. The pit in front of your feet was for most of the water, which you then used to wash and rinse yourself.
You can also see the main street with gate beyond.
There are other streets too, some paved.
After we had had an opportunity to see all this, our buggy took us back to the bus, which then took us into the town for lunch. We stopped at a place which had a terrace above a beach, and Paul went down to the beach for a walk after he had eaten. After lunch, we set off for Marsala.
We learned a bit about Marsala in our lecture last night. It was here in 1860 that Garibaldi and his redshirts began his campaign to drive out the Bourbons and bring about Italian unification. It has a much older history though. It was founded in 397 BC by the survivors of the sacking of Motya; Motya, where we will go tomorrow, the main Phoenician town in the area, was sacked by the Syracusans.
Marsala is an Arab name. The town was originally called Lilybaeum when it was founded. It finally became Roman in 241 BC, and was the place from which Rome began its attacks on Carthage. It is quite a small town, with a little harbour crammed with fishing boats. We went to the Archeological Museum to see the skeleton of a Phoenician warship which probably sank in a sea battle in 241 BC. Only parts of the stern remain, but it was originally 35 metres long and had 17 oars on each side. There are also anchors and rows of amphorae rescued from the sea. Photographs were not allowed, though I would have liked to photograph the ship.
In another room there were archeological finds from around the area, especially Roman ones including a statue dredged up from the harbour and some good Roman mosaics.
When we left the museum, we went for a wine tasting. It was mostly dessert wines, which Paul and I find have a good deal in common with cough mixture, so we did not buy anything. I did like the almond wine we tried and considered buying a bottle of that - but we are only half way through the holiday and it's a long way to carry a bottle, which might easily get broken.
We set off for our hotel, which is some way outside the town, so we had to eat in the hotel tonight, after a talk on the Phoenicians. The hotel dinner was entirely buffet, so Paul managed to find a few things he was prepared to eat.
I'm not too sure when the next post will be, as we are 4 nights in Palermo in a hotel with no Wi-Fi. I will look for an Internet Cafe.
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